Month: October 2024

By Christine Graf

During his 37-year career in real estate, Ballston Spa real estate agent Tom Trevett has worked extensively in the REO (real estate owned) sector of the industry. REO refers to property that has been foreclosed upon and is owned by a bank or other lender.

“I own a full-service real estate company serving commercial, residential, and new construction, but I seem to have found a niche in REO–real estate owned by banks and corporate entities like hedge funds and trusts,” said Trevett, an approved REO broker who works in nine counties throughout the region. 

For the companies he represents—companies whose names he prefers not to disclose–Trevett works as the listing broker, a job he described as labor intensive.

“Corporate companies and hedge funds demand a lot from you as far as servicing their properties–weekly inspections, monthly status reports, and broker price opinions every ninety days,” he said.

By Susan Elise Campbell

An authentic Vietnamese restaurant, Mama’s Pho House, has come to Malta. Mama is Nga Nguyen ( “Graceful Win”), whose first restaurant fulfills a lifetime dream.

Pho is the brothy noodle dish that has gained popularity everywhere. Already customers are coming up from Albany and down from Lake George and Montreal to visit her restaurant since the September 10th opening, Nga said.

“There has been no Vietnamese restaurant past Northway Exit 9,” she said. “Malta is a good location and I love it here.”

When Nga cooks, her dishes link her love of food, family, and her youth during the Vietnam war years. 

“Pho is an international dish, like a meatball, and everybody loves it,” she said. “It contains fresh protein and spices and herbs like anise, clove, ginger, Thai basil and cilantro.” 

“Pho helps you sleep well and warm up and feel good,” she said.

By Susan Elise Campbell

Moreau Animal Clinic is within months of relocating to a new facility designed by Nick and Jill Outterson, the husband and wife veterinarians who purchased the practice in August 2018.

“After being in a general veterinary practice and Nick in emergency medicine, we were looking forward to the next step, and practice ownership was next on the list,” Dr. Jill said. 

Moreau Animal Clinic had been a single-doctor practice for 50 years when the Outtersons relocated from Albany to take it over, she said. 

In the years that followed, it became more of a challenge with two practitioners working out of a clinic that had been set up to accommodate only one, they said.

“With two of us, we have grown the practice quite a bit and have also added a full-time associate who we have been mentoring the past three years,” said Dr. Jill. 

By Jill Nagy

Saratoga attorney Debra Whitson is on a mission to keep divorce clients out of court. She advocates and if possible practices collaborative divorce or mediated divorce, processes that empower the parties to resolve issues such as property division and child custody without litigation.

She explained that the parties can resolve the issues between themselves before consulting attorneys. She calls that do-it-yourself divorce. If that fails, they can bring in a neutral third party to mediate. The mediator can keep the conversation going and help the parties work things out. In mediation, each party is usually represented by an attorney. In a collaborative divorce, the parties are joined at the table by experts to assist with issues of property valuation, child welfare, and others. A divorce coach heads the team. A litigated divorce “is the last stop on the train,” said Whitson.

Resolving issues at the courthouse, that last stop, can be heart wrenching, especially for children, Whitson argues. It is also costly. Legal fees for a litigated divorce can reach $100,000 or more; the total cost, to both parties, for a collaborative divorce typically ranges from $10,000 to $15,000. The reduction in emotional cost, may be even greater.

By Rod Bacon

Three business associates have parleyed their experience in the hospitality industry into a new venture serving a variety of comfort foods.

Kevin Joyce, Jimmy Murphy and Erika Fass opened The Post Pizza & More in Middle Grove over Memorial Day weekend. It is located in the United States Post Office building in an area that once housed The Post Cafe. Joyce has owned the building for years, and when the cafe closed the pizza parlor was born. 

 Prior to opening the pizza parlor, Joyce owned Tinny’s on Lake Desolation for 10 years, with Fass serving as general manager. Murphy has extensive experience creating unique pizza dishes and was brought into the business as the pizza chef.

While the search is on to expand their staff, the partners currently do the majority of the work.

“Everything is made here,” said Murphy. “We make the dough here. We make the sauce here.”

The menu includes breakfast sandwiches, slices of pizza, a 16-inch pizza, a 12-inch cauliflower pizza, a pepperoni roll and a Caesar salad.

They are experimenting with rotating offerings such as a hamburger special and quesadillas.